Many methods and products have been developed to prevent the unauthorized reproduction of original valuable documents, such as checks, coupons, gift certificates, licenses, prescription forms, personal identification papers, records, and packaging material for brand protection to deter unauthorized reproduction of the originals. In the past, generally secured documents were produced using standard print processes such as but not limited to offset printing (lithography), letterpress, flexographic, intaglio and gravure; more importantly with recent advancements in the digital print devices and the ever increase demand in on-demand printing, secured documents must also be produced using ink and toner based commercial digital presses or printers as well as desktop printers and multifunctional printers. Therefore the methods and products must include the ability to translate equally well from high resolution outputs such as at resolution 2400 dots per inch or greater, used in standard print processes to low resolution outputs such as 300 dots per inch or less, used in digital print devices. Generally, these methods and products enable unauthorized copies of original documents to be readily distinguished from the originals regardless of the print processes.
One such methods and products may include the use of void pantographs where one would embed images and or warning phases such as “VOID” or “COPY” in the original documents that are nearly invisible to the naked eye but which become apparent upon photocopying thus allowing the detection of a copied document.
Other methods and products may include the use of a faux watermark where one would use a phase such as “ORIGINAL DOCUMENT” that are barely visible to the naked eye but which would disappear upon photocopying therefore may allow the detection of a copied document where the copied original would be the missing such watermark.
It is known that with most traditional void pantograph security features, one could suppress the hidden warning phase such as “VOID” or “UNAUTHORIZED COPY” by changing the photocopier's setting so that the desired effect of the warning phase would be eliminated from the photocopy of the original. Just as for the faux watermark “ORIGINAL DOCUMENT” where one can again by changing the photocopier's setting so that the desired effect of the revealing the watermark would be achieved on the photocopy of the original.
Due to the continuous advancements and improvements on photocopier equipment where the scanning and output resolutions are at 600 dots per inch or greater coupled with multiple adjustment settings, now available in photocopiers allowing the user to replicate the desired “lifelike” copies of the originals. Under these scenarios, many traditional security features become ineffective against unauthorized reproduction where the photocopies are nearly indistinguishable to the originals. It is especially true, when describing documents which needed to be secured with traditional security features, which are now to be printed using low resolution output devices such as 300 dots per inch or less, one can see the challenge lies with the ever increasing scan and output resolutions of the photocopier being greater than the output resolution of the original printing device.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is a document protection method and apparatus that enables a simple and expedient way to enhance the effectiveness of traditional security features by incorporating the void pantograph feature and faux watermark creating a novel resilient void pantograph security feature that may be printed using standard print processes, but even more importantly, may be digitally printed using all types of digital print presses, and printers to prevent the unauthorized reproduction of original documents from the advancing photocopiers.
Furthermore, what is needed in the art are methods for producing such original documents having such improved resilient void pantograph security features where each resilient void security feature is calibrated, modified, customized and transformed into a feature that is unique to each particular print process. This calibration process may maximize the effective of such security features against a broader range of photocopiers.
Additionally, what is also needed in the art are methods for producing such original documents where such improved resilient void pantograph security feature in the electronic format can conveniently be issued on-demand onto plain paper along with the variable text and or information of the document in one pass, using any digital output device driven by an executable software, print driver and/or printer firmware application.